"Okay. Okay, hold it." Draco pushed away from the card table, and leaned back in his chair. He rubbed his eyes, and then his temples, with the heels of his palms.

  Harry looked on sympathetically. It was a lot to take in, especially coming from a Death Eater background. Demelli was laying on the table, with her cover open to a good briefing angle. Nothing showed there currently save a swirling spiral of yellow. It would grow to about the size of a Galleon, then shrink away to nothing, over and over. He figured it was her way of twiddling her thumbs.

  Draco sat forward, and rested his forearms on the gleaming mahogany. He shook his head.

  "So, He Who..." Stopping abruptly, he grimaced, then went on. "So, Riddle hid pieces of his soul in... things, and then hid those things. And, by destroying them, you made him mortal and... killable. These..., Horcruxes?"

  "That is correct," Harry confirmed. "And until just last week, I truly believed that there were only five living people that knew of them, even as a possibility, and less than that knew Riddle was using them."

  Draco scowled. "Not even the Aurors?"

  "Not even the Minister for Magic," Harry said gently. "You wouldn't know, if it weren't for your family connection to some of the damned things."

  "Family conn..." Draco's eyes widened. "The diary! And the cup that got so many killed!" Then he went very, very still. "The diadem," he whispered. "Crabbe."

  Harry winced, but carried on.

  "Yes," he said. "I think these Unknowns are trying to collect the destroyed Horcruxes. That, I am pretty sure, is our 'What,' in this business. Who, When, Why, and How are all still to be determined. A partial 'Why' is that these things, destroyed or not, appear to be extremely, in fact excessively magical. But we have no idea what that magic is, or what it can be used for."

  "Another big 'How' is, how did these people find out about the Horcruxes? Riddle sure as Hel would not have told anyone. I understand your Aunt Bellatrix barely escaped when he learned about the cup."

  Draco shuddered, and nodded. "Oh, my, yes. And my father. But as soon as Riddle calmed, she was right back to hanging on his every word."

  "This is why I think your parents and you are being targeted. The Unknowns suspect you have one or more of these artefacts. From the way that note was phrased, I don't believe they know exactly what they are looking for. These large-scale operations appear to me to be on the nature of fishing expeditions, targeting spots that have a historical connection to Riddle. They stumbled across the one at Spider Glen, but only because we tossed it in their laps. What I'm trying to say is, I think they have deduced the existence of the Horcruxes as artefacts, whether or not they know of them by that name. They do not, I believe, have a checklist. And I doubt they know what they were used for. Their importance seems to be that they were connected to Riddle at all."

  Draco nodded. "But you do have one. A checklist, I mean."

  Harry blew out a breath, and nodded. "Of the Horcruxes, yes. But what other things of Riddle's might be still out there? How magical might they be?"

  "Let's stick to what we know for now," Draco suggested. "Which is Horcruxes. So, six?"

  Yes. Yes, indeed, thought Harry. Six. Most definitely not seven, Draco, read in or not.

  Aloud, he said, "Right. The Unknowns lucked into the stone from Marvolo Gaunt's ring. They know about the cup being stolen from your aunt's vault at Greengotts, because of the Malfoy Manor Massacre."

  Draco rolled his eyes. Harry feigned disappointment. "Hey, I thought that was a rather pithy turn of phrase."

  "Only if you're speaking with a lisp," Draco muttered.

  Harry loftily ignored this aside. "I doubt they are aware of the locket, or its provenance. Those were pretty closely held."

  "Provenance?" Draco asked.

  "There is a hidden cavern, with a lake full of Inferi protecting a cursed birdbath. Once he knew the Horcrux was gone, I would think he never gave it a second thought."

  "Lake of Inferi," Draco repeated, meditatively. He had his lower lip between his teeth as he thought. "Harry, do you remember seeing Inferi in the fight at the school?"

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  Harry side-eyed him. "Early on, I guess. Mostly in passing."

  "And they were pretty useless, right? Mainly useful for diffusing the strength of the defenders. What the Muggles call, 'cannon fodder.'"

  "Well, yeah," Harry admitted. "Where are you going with this?"

  "It's just, my father mentioned the early battle was hard on their supply of Inferi. Very hard. I don't know if there is a word for 'decimated multiplied by nine,' but that was about the situation. And Riddle dispatched someone to fetch more."

  Harry's stomach dropped a little into his guts. "Well, the word for multiplying by nine is noncuplucate, but, useless information aside...?" He ended on an inquiring note.

  Draco wrinkled his nose. "The precise phrase that Father used was 'drowned rats."

  Harry sighed. "How truly, truly good. So there could be someone out there who is aware of the cavern. Did Lucien mention any names?'

  "Not to me. It was one of those holiday evening, drink-inspired maudlin rambles. Basically, 'How did my life come to this?' That kind of talk."

  Harry huffed. "And we don't have the kind of luck that would let us assume there is no connection to our current situation." He paused, considering. "Even if they know of the lake, that does nothing but give them another place to search. There's little for them to collect but the basin, the dinghy, and some chains. Possibly some left-over Inferi. The basin was definitely a powerful piece of magic, but I've no idea if it was removable. We might investigate the place ourselves. That could prove or disprove the Unknowns' knowledge of the place."

  Viktor nodded. "Regardless of whether they are aware of the locket, the Gringott's robbery is common knowledge. So you, Granger, and Weasley are on the hook for the cup."

  Cup. Hook. Harry suppressed a grin. He really had to get his inner monologue under better control. It was about to become an inner diatribe.

  Demelli 'spoke' up. Harry, while we have been briefing, I have also been doing the research you requested. The R.O.C.C. did conduct operations against Riddle, whom they only knew of by the 'V' word. As you feared, the debriefings and after-action reports are either skimpy or non-existent. I did find one internal memo that may be relevant. It's dated close to a year and a half after the end of the War.

  "Trot it out," said Harry. "We're all Aurors in this room.

  I'm an Auror, too? asked' Demelli. Huh. Does that mean I can use the Dueling Hall?

  Harry opened his mouth, closed it, and instead said, "The memo?"

  The yellow words swirled down to a spiral, then swirled back up to a replica of a standard M.O.M. InterOffice Memo form.

  DATE: 3 May 1999

  From: Ruby

  To: Crescent

  CC: all

  V/DL Clean-Up is on hold, pending new target acquisitions. Divert all resources to your next priority. And, Crescent, that DOES include your precious "Ears." They're getting fat and lazy impersonating Pygmy Puffs. The Pygmy Puffs they are replacing are getting stressed in Holding, and the rest of us have no interest in sifting through schoolgirl gossip for intelligence. (The fact that you DO kinda creeps me out). Since the two primaries, HJG and, to a lesser extent, GMW, are leaving at the end of term, I feel little actionable information will be forthcoming from any of the others targeted.

  Ruby Honeysuckle - Rare, Obscure, and Confounding Case Division, Regional Office Local Liaison.

  " 'V' I get," said Draco. " 'DL'? Dark Lord?"

  "Yeah," Harry said. "I don't think Ginny and Hermione are going to be pleased that they were cuddling up to imposter Puffs. Imposter Puffs. Sounds like a house-brand cereal." To Demelli, he went on, "So, that's it?"

  So far, admitted the D.M.L.E. File. I'm not whinging or anything, Harry, but these people's paperwork and filing make you look like Dewey Decimal, himself!

  "That's bad," said Harry. He was perfectly willing to admit his faults, as long as he wasn't being negged in front of his wife. "And I think his name was Melvil."

  Hyperbole, Harry. It's your friend. And, before you ask, finding a record of what they may have collected IS at the top of any number of lists.

  "Demelli, you're the man. And by the man, I mean the file."

  So, side note. Has M.O.M. File been asking about me?

  "Close Down File, As Per Procedure."

  You are SUCH a...

  "Damned if I'm getting in the middle of that!" Harry muttered. "So, Draco, is the diary at your folks' house in the City?"

  "Probably," answered Draco. "If it was here, it would be in our Vault, and I'm fairly familiar with everything in there."

  Harry nodded. "So, the Unknowns were targeting you for nothing, all this time." He shook his head. "What a waste."

  Draco looked away, not meeting Harry's eyes.

  "Ah...," he said. "That, uh, that may not be... entirely true. Not in the strictest meaning of the word. I mean, not that I knew, at the time, but now knowing what... I... didn't know I... knew..." He stammered to a halt, then went on in a rush. "But I'm pretty sure the Unknowns couldn't know what I didn't know, unless they knew me and knew something I didn't know but should have."

  Harry stared at Draco for a long moment. He hazarded a guess. "It's complicated?"

  Draco took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Yes," he said. "That."

  Harry sighed. He looked over at their empty glasses from earlier, still sitting on the card table.

  He said, "What are the chances of a couple more fingers of that single-malt? Then, you and I will try to, I don't know, uncomplicate things, maybe?"